Field of Mud and Bone
by Goldfish Girl
Summary: I've got my finger on the trigger/And tonight faith just ain't enough." Act 1, Scene 1 of The Worst Patient Ever. Missing scene for 4.01, "Mayhem."


Disclaimers: Though Nurse Lisa Clement and Dr. Taunk are my own creations, I don't own Aaron Hotchner, Kate The Brit or JJ Jareau, please please don't sue me, o powers that be.

Rating: PG-13 - Mostly harmless, except for some cursing

Spoilers: Missing scene for 4.01, "Mayhem." Written in mind of all of season 4 up to episode 14.

Genre:  General/Hurt-Comfort/Semi-Filk

Note: Title and quotes from the great Bruce Springsteen song, "Devils and Dust."

_We're a long, long way from home…_

_Home's a long, long way from us_

_I feel a dirty wind blowing_

_Devils and dust_

_******************_

As fucked up as it might have seemed to an outsider, tonight was a respite to Lisa Clement.

She had just happened to pull third shift tonight. Tonight had just happened to be the night of the ultra-secret procedure that everyone knew about but no one understood. Secret Service all over. A dozen waivers and disclaimers and papers to sign that she forgot about immediately.

So she was here, engrossed in the Post, and everything was as boring as she could remember in any time in her 15 years.

And then everything fell apart. Or put itself back together, she couldn't decide which.

The two men, and the woman, coming in on a stretcher, one screaming statistics, one bleeding to death, and only the date and time determining which one it was.

-I'm losing her bradycardic decompensating spinal injury blood pressure maybe check the exits getting her into the OR NOW NOW NOW-

Doctor Leonard had it covered, that new resident Taunk a second after, and Lena and Bridget snapped into action. Lisa gradually wound down from the cycle that had been beaten into her night after night and month after month.

But it wasn't over. As she looked back at the Post, she looked up at the second man who had been following the gurney. Not one of the staff. Not a paramedic. And covered in the woman's blood. Her blood- but his blood too. Streaming from his ear. Soaking through his pant leg. It was obviously only two seconds, but it seemed like eons, as he tried to steady himself. Attempted to steady himself, catch his body weight on the side of her desk, and failed miserably.

"Sir! SIR! Someone get a gurney!"

Dark, tall. Pale as the moon outside as she had come in tonight. And crumpled on the ugly tile floor of St. Barclay's Emergency Room.

"I'm okay I'm okay I'm okay I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine I'm okay…."

He passed out, briefly, then came to, and passed out again, repeating that litany as he leaned against her leg.

"No, sir, you're not. Please, let me help you. My name is Lisa, what's yours?"

She turned on her nurse's calm as she scanned around, and fortunately spotted Trevor, the orderly, snatching a gurney from the other side of the room.

He was conscious again. "Supervisory Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Badge Number 6604598."

" Sir, do you know where you are? Can you tell me your name?"

"….Haley…."

"Your name is Haley?"

"No… my name is…my ear hurts. Ow, ow, fuck, fuck fuck it hurts."

His face and body convulsed in pain, and Trevor had finally traversed the feet between them, in what seemed like hours, but was only minutes. He helped her lift the all too solid agent onto the gurney.

"I'm sorry, I know it hurts, but you have to help us right now, so we can help you. Please, you need to tell us your name."

His dark eyes opened as they wheeled him towards the trauma room, and seemed to focus again.

"Aaron, Aaron Hotchner."

"Okay, Agent Hotchner, do you have any medical conditions we need to know about? Anyone you need us to call?"

"JJ…ahhh…" That seemed to be all the energy he had in him, as he squeezed his eyes shut, and leaned his head against the gurney.

"Trevor, go find Doctor Taunk, and tell him I need him NOW."

Trevor may have been new, to the tune of three months, but he knew when to get stuff done, and he sprinted like a jackrabbit off to the opposite end of the ER.

Hotchner picked that particular moment to regain lucidity, and he caught Lisa's eyes with an intensity that took her aback for a moment.

"JJ…please call JJ Jareau…703-…466-8234. Please call her now."

"All right, good, that's a start." Lisa grabbed a pad of paper that was thankfully was in the vicinity, and scribbled down the phone number as fast as she could.

"Now, Aaron, I need you to breathe slowly, and calm down." Lisa attached a cardiac monitor, and tried to "subtly" undress him (though subtle had never associated with that procedure before) and start the standard IVs. "Tell me where it hurts. What happened?"

"It…blew up. We were walking, and the car blew up, and then I was talking to Sam, and I had to go help Kate."

"Kate is the woman that you came in with?"

"Yes. Yes…Kate. Where's Kate?" That seemed to freak him him out all the more, and his breathing and heart rate intensified rapidly.

"Aaron. Aaron. Agent Hotchner!"

"Ma'am, I need to….get back. I need to find my team. I need to find my team right now."

He sounded small, and…desparate. He didn't look at her. He couldn't look at her. Fuck. Fuck, he was going into shock, and she needed to nip this in the bud. She had some Ativan at hand, but that alone wasn't going to do it.

"Aaron, listen to me. Listen to me. Your team is fine. You're in St. Barclay's Hospital. Everything is going to be all right. I will call JJ, everything's going to be fine. But you need to calm down right now, or you're going to hurt yourself more. Okay?"

Hotchner's breathing slowed to a dull pant, and he finally caught her eyes.

"It's okay to…stop. Let me do my job. Let me take care of you."

Lisa wouldn't say that what happened next was Hotchner calming down. But at least he seemed to shift a speed, and that was progress.

Finally, Dr. Taunk arrived, and procedures and protocol could kick in.

"Agent Hotchner?"

"Yes?"

"Hi, I'm Doctor Taunk, let me take a look at you," Even at 27, Daniel Taunk's avuncular bedside manner had been obvious immediately, and she was never more thankful for it then now.

"Okay, Agent Hotchner, you have a punctured ear drum, and some shrapnel in your right leg, but I can take care of that for you, right now. I'm also going to give you some stuff to calm you down, okay?"

"Okay." Aaron's whole bearing seemed to change, a weight lifted off his shoulders, even before Dr. Taunk added the Ativan to his IV tube. But, his eyes darted open again, and he weakly grabbed Lisa's arm.

"Call?"

"I'll call JJ, you just rest now," His grip unfastened from her elbow, and his eyes fluttered shut.

Lisa made her way over to the phone at the nurse's station. Thank god the cell picked up, and the voice of a very stressed young woman answered.

"Jareau, FBI?"

"Agent Jareau? This is Lisa Clement at St. Barclay's Hospital…"

****************

_I've got my finger on the trigger_

_And tonight faith just ain't enough_

_When I look inside my heart_

_There's just devils and dust_

**fin**


End file.
